The rantings and adventures of an archaeologist, traveler, feminist, and awkward 20-something.

Friday, January 2, 2015

How to Tell if a Movie is a Dude Flick

Photo by jwblinn/iStockphoto

We all know a chick flick when we see one. The main
character or characters are chicks, the main dude is some version of prince
charming…etc etc.

But how do you tell if a movie is a dude flick? It’s a bit
less commonly defined.

Thus, I put to you the dude flick test. If a movie meets
three basic criteria, it passes as a dude flick: (1) There are no more than two women in it and(2) they don’t talk to each other unless (3) it’s about a man.

Let’s try it out with a few of 2014’s biggest films.

~The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Little dude, big dragon, lots of fighting. Bard has two daughters
but all they do is scream and cry while the son helps save the day, leaving
only the two elvish women as plot-important chicks and they don’t share scenes
so PASS!

~Unbroken

A few WWII soldiers survive a plane crash and over a month
drifting at sea only to be captured by the Japanese navy. I haven’t actually
seen this one, but I scrolled down the complete cast list on IMBD until I got
to roles as generic as “young bully” and only saw one female actress, so I
think you’re safe. PASS!

~Guardians of the Galaxy

A human dude, an alien chick, an alien dude, a talking
raccoon, and an animate tree save everybody from evil alien dudes. The
important alien chick, Gamora, does talk to her evil sister, Nebula a few times.
So it comes close, but it doesn’t quite past the dude flick test. But they’re
both pretty hot in this badass alien chick way so I’m sure you’ll still enjoy
it. FAIL! But barely.

~The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Female main character who talks to her mother and sister,
the female future president of Panem, and a propo director chick with really
cool tattoos. Sorry boys, this one fails. But, don’t worry, it’s not like it’s
female dominated. Actually if you look at the cast list you’ll notice that there’s
still slightly more men in plot pertinent roles than women.

Okay. This is just a sample. But I could go on all day, and
the pattern would be the same. If we use a standard for dude flicks that says
there can only be one or two important female characters and they can only
converse to each other about male characters, you would think that only a small
fraction of mainstream movies would qualify. But that’s not the case.

As a matter of fact, I have to confess that I didn’t make up
this test completely on my own. I actually adapted it from something called the
Bechdel Test.

It’s just as you feared! It’s a trap! A feminist trap! Come
on, you stuck with me this far. Hear me out.

The Bechdel Test is a low bar test for gauging sexism in movies.
Its three criteria are the inverse of those for the dude flick test. So
a film passes the Bechdel Test if it has 1) at least two women in it (2) who
talk to each other (3) about something other than a man.

This is the 21st century. Age of equality. Only a few particularly
dudely movies will fail. Right?

Wrong. If you go to bechdeltest.com you can see and add to a
database of movie reviews saying whether or not a given movie passes. This is open
for the public so both men and women can rate the films they watch (not just us
pesky feminists).

You’ll notice that not only do a good portion of current
movies fail, but a lot of the movies that pass only do so by the skin of their
teeth. If you click on the movie title you can read people’s reviews and
comments. They’re often debating about whether the few slivers
of conversation between the female characters in the movie really count.

Take Guardians of the Galaxy for example. Don’t get me
wrong, this is a really fun, enjoyable movie. But it fails the dude flick test
and passes the Bechdel Test with just a few minutes of conversation. And it
follows the same trend as lot of other super hero movies, such as the Avengers
and the Fantastic Four, where there is a team of heroes and not only is there
one female but her gender is one of her defining characteristics.

This is just one example of men being implicitly presented
as “standard” and women being presented as “other.”

Alright, I’ve lectured you on the Bechdel Test long enough.
Before I let you go, I want go ahead and address a few responses I’ve gotten from
men when bringing this is up in the past.

Movies cater to men because men go to the movies
more.
How do you know that men don’t go to the movies more because movies cater to men?

You just started voting, what, 100 years ago?
Baby steps.

Oh you’re right. The USA waited a century
and a half for women’s suffrage. If we can wait that long to vote we can
certainly wait for equal representation on screen. Silly me.

SERIOUSLY?! The fact that we
had to fight for a basic civil liberty does not mean that we’re obligated to wait
around for equality in other areas. I mean really, why would you even say
that? I just can't. Can't even.

Come on, it’s just a movie. Stop being petty.

It’s not just about one
movie. It’s about a huge and culturally significant industry that both reflects
and influences our societal values. Men, specifically white men, still dominate
almost every industry. The realm of entertainment is no exception. I know you’re annoyed that you "can’t just enjoy the damn movie," but women and minorities are annoyed at constantly being belittled and
relegated to roles that revolve around you. So who’s really being petty here?

Look, I don’t expect anyone who reads this to go protest or
abstain from anything related to JJ Abrams. All I ask is that you look with
open eyes at gender inequality and stop belittling women who are tired of
it. If nothing else, next time you’re at
the movies and your lady friend is begging you to watch some stupid chick flick
instead of a “normal, everybody movie,” think twice about how you respond.